Hunter Being Hunted
It wasn't long after midday, the sun was out and the birds were chirping. A truly splendid day in the Land of Tea. Amongst the tree's in one of its many forests was a predator clad in black, and donning a wolf mask, steadily stalking its prey. The predator, Raiden, darted from tree to tree silently maintaining a safe distance from the wandering man. Raiden switched to his telescopic vision, he saw that the forest was coming to an end and a the beginning of a seemingly endless field of lush green grass. "Its now or never", he thought to himself. Slowly but surely he closed the gap between him and his target while still remaining deadly silent. Once he had reached a suitable gap between him and his strolling target, he grounded himself and stood still. His left arm reached for one of his two sheathed swords and took the Iaidō stance for a quick effective kill. Assassin's rule number 3 - speed: take out the target before the target notices your presence, he said in his head, reciting the last of the assassin rules. Moments later he launched himself at that man quickly and effortlessly with extreme prejudice. From assassinations, to ambushes, to straight five versus one, Shenron has dealt with it all. He's been around the game long enough to know to never let his guard down, not even for a second. Using his sensing skills to always survey the area, there was never a moment where Shenron was not prepared for battle and this was no exception. As silent as the assassin may be, the red-haired shinobi was able to sense the assassin leap towards him. Not knowing how powerful the assassin was, Shenron did not want show his skill set off the back, so he simply used a technique taught to him in the academy to switch places with a near by tree branch. "Another one eh, who sent you this time" he said smoking his cigarette on a tree branch. The black steel blade lodged deeply into its intended target but much to Raiden's what he thought to be his target was soon revealed to be a mere tree branch. He cursed under his breath at the realization his foe had used a Body Replacement Technique, while simultaneously dislodging his sword. He chose to ignore what his opponent said as even the slightest of things could hint that he was assigned by the Mizukage. Raiden looked up too the branch the man was now standing on, his gaze focused straight on him with absolute concentration. Both his hands now wrapped tightly around the hilt of his blade, in a stance that would allow him to go on either offense or defense. From the little intel he had on this guy he was a force to be reckoned with. Raiden coated his sword in a thick layer of intense lightning, readying for combat. "Not a very talkative one are you, then again when are any of you guys." he said still smoking his cig. "Lightning, Kenjutsu Iaido specialist...no that can't be all, if someone did send him, they gotta know that is not enough to stop me, there must be more to him than that." he thought staring at his opponent. Lets begin he said as several chains emerged from the ground right under Raiden."Let's see your speed and reaction time, as well as ur ability to adapt" Thanks to his acute sense of touch Raiden quite literally felt the vibrations of chains surging through the ground beneath him. For Raiden alone, time seemed to slow down as his accelerated perception kicked in, giving him ample time to react. In one swift action, he perform a backflip evading the chains and landing a few spaces back from his original position. As he had both feet planted firmly on the ground, he realised he hadn't come out of that attack totally unscathed. From his left arm dripped blood, it was a flesh wound but nothing that would bother him. "My turn", he thought with a grin under his mask. He re-sheathed his sword and made a handsign. Beneath his feet was a brief puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared it seemed as if nothing had happened. However, this was not the case. The puff of smoke was a shadow clone appearing, and at the exact moment it came to existence Raiden used the Space-Time Transition under the cover of the smoke to switch places with a leaf just above his enemy. This left the enemy totally unsuspecting of the imminent danger and even if he were to sense it would most likely be too late seeing as the time it would take him to comprehend the situation and the distance between the two. This was the might of Raiden's infamous Maneuver 4. Raiden ,now just above his target, grabbed hold of his sword and let loose a powerful slash aimed at the head of his target. While part of the test was to see how the shinobi's speed and reaction time were, the main purpose was to see how the assassin sensed. Any chakra sensor would've seen the current of chakra from where Shenron was sitting to the ground beneath him, allowing him/her to easy dodge without being hit. From this he was able to deduce that his sensing skills were not through chakra but through the actual human senses. "Interesting" he thought as he saw the blood drip from Raiden's left arm. Watching Raiden re-sheathed and make a handsign was the moment Shenron knew the battle was about to get serious. Inhaling his cigarette one last time, as he put his right hand on the handle of his blade. For non-sensors, the smoke would have covered up Raiden's movements, but thanks to Shenron's quality sensing abilities he was able to "see" everything. The red-haired "saw" the assasin's clone take the place of him as the real assassin disappeared for a brief moment. At that exact moment, Shenron activated his clan's dojutsu. With it he was able to see Raiden appear above him before hand. He instantly unsheathed his katana, stopping Raiden's attack. "I guess it's finally time to get up" he thought as he quickly flicked his cig at the real Raiden, then shooting a tiny bullet of blue yellow fire from his index and middle finger. Raiden cursed once again, as his attack was foiled so easily. He was now stranded midair, with a potentially dangerous object and small a blazing attack rapidly approaching. Without thinking twice, he created a temporary platform of wind below his feet. He used the platform to launch himself higher into the sky, evading the two attacks. Beneath him, an explosion sounded, followed by a shockwave which propelled him even higher. Using his telescopic sight, he locked onto a stone in the field outside of the forest and switched places with it. Without the use of hand seals, he expelled a furious, gargantuan stream of intense lightning from his mouth towards the forest his target was in. On impact, the lightning set the tree's ablaze, creating a raging forest fire. Raiden reached for the other sword, now with a sword in each hand, he stood there awaiting his targets emergence as his swords became engulfed in chakra. "He's nimble that's for sure" Shenron thought as his cig exploded. Noticing his opponent teleport once again, he began to think. "He has an interesting Space-time technique, requires no handsigns, no seals, as of now I don't think he has a dojutsu, so what is it." he mumbled trying to make connections as he saw a surge of chakra come from where his opponent was standing. A couple of seconds later, kaboom, the forest was filled with a huge lightning explosion covering the entire forest, even destroying his clone that was still there. After the smoke cleared, all was silent. Then all of the sudden dozens of shuriken appeared from the deceased forest. As they all headed towards him, three balls, three rubbers balls with no openings appeared from the forest bouncing towards the field. At unrivalled speeds, Raiden resheathed both swords and sent an equal amount of his own projectiles to counter the incoming shuriken. With his superior accuracy, his kunai had hit the shuriken in such ways that it altered the trajectory to the ground, each landing scattered throughout the battlefield. For a millisecond, he stood there wondering what action to take against the seemingly harmless rubber balls. Then he quickly came to his senses. At this point anything and everything should be considered at a threat. Like before, he threw kunai knives but this time each of them had an explosive tag attached. He had thrown to at each ball just to be safe. On impact, the rubber balls were blown to smithereens along with any contents it may have contained. Upon the detonation, Raiden has a sudden recollection. "Rubber Balls..?", he thought to himself. Raiden was confused as he thought only those directly related to the Fifth Mizukage could be a user of that style. Underneath his mask, his face took a very concerned and worried look at his conclusion. "Dammit! They sent me to kill the fucking four tails Jinchuriki?! It cant be.. i thought the four tails was set free! Shit, im way in over my head!", he said in his head yet again. Almost immediately after, electrical surges began to emit from all over his body. Again, he drew for both his swords, assuming an offensive stance. Though Raiden's plan had seemed to work, the smoke would hides what truly happened. Right before the kunai would come into contact with the rubber balls, a sudden surge of energy would be emitted from the rubber ball in the middle, causing all the explosive tags to set off before hand never reaching the spheres. Due to the fact the middle kunai was the closest to hitting sphere than the others, the middle ball felt the greatest force; being sent flying back towards the forest while the other two barely moved. After the explosion the silence broke, only hearing the the sound of electricity from his blade. Then suddenly the ground began to tremble once again, cracks to appeared proving the magnitude. Suddenly many chains (about 40) appeared from the ground up, Coming from different angles, many chains headed towards him. "Shit", he thought to himself as he felt large amounts of tremors beneath his feet just like the last. With his now immense speed and reflexes coupled with his slowed perception of time, he was able to dodge and weave through each and every single chain that arose from the ground. Seconds later, Raiden stood around 100m behind where he was previously situated. "Those balls sure are fucking resilient", he thought as he sent a large gust of wind towards the balls. The balls were effortlessly flung in the other direction, along with a few flaming tree's. By simply rotating the air in front of him, he erected a fair sized whirlwind and directed it towards the forest, leaving nothing but a trail of destruction in its wake. "Assassin Rule Number 1 - silence: dissolve in the darkness & erase your breath. Wait for an opening to attack your target... Behold the true power of an assassin"', he said in his head. With a flash of electricity, without a trace. "How annoying, this mongrel's specialty is Nature Transformation, this assassin is really annoying. But running into him isn't all that bad, he seems to have a strong chakra source inside of him, he's been complaining about how hungry he's been since his last meal." he thought as he emerged from the rolling middle ball that we sent flying back first. Noticing the build up of chakra from his opponent, Shenron took on a defense position and had the clones inside the other 2 balls ball disperse so he could regain his chakra. Suddenly a massive amount of wind release chakra was emitted from the assassin's hand, Shenron took on an odd uncommon transformation, known as the Aerification Technique. Using it his whole body would transform into wind, merging with the tornado making it his own. Applying his chakra into it, it increased and speed, making it more dangerous. "This mongrel thinks because I can't sense him through chakra, I can't sense him at all. Careless" he thought as he continued to track the white haired shinobi by use of his increased perception and ability to sense thermal energy. He would continue to increase the size of the tornado, destroying the forest completely and began terrorizing the plains. After several minutes of massive currents wrecking the entire forest Shenron would stop them, noticing his opponent had retreated for an unknown reason. "Interesting, did he truly leave?" he thought as he continued on his journey.